What stops me, technologically, from creating an NFT from an image that I didn’t actually create? If it was about creators getting paid then there'd be a better answer than "nothing, caveat emptor".
Someone mentioned hicetnunc.xyz here, so I went and took a look at their FAQ. I thought this was interesting[1]:
> To make it easier for buyers, please leave a trace to any social profile or website in the description of your artwork, so potential buyers can validate the authenticity. If you can link the NFTs the artist is advertising on the profile with the NFTs on Hicetnunc, you can assume it is legit.
So NFT markets are relying on third party social media sites to prove authenticity. And I suppose artists would rely on the government an actual copywright law if they wanted to enforce anything.
Yep. It's either decentralised or a proof of an authentic link to the artist, never both.
The case for NFTs solving artists' problems is it's a way of getting noveaux rich with a particular interest in digital collectibles to spend money on art they wouldn't otherwise give a second glance to. There's real value in matching buyers and sellers. But I guess admitting the value was all in the collectors and not in the supposed transformational properties of the token wouldn't sell tokens as effectively...
Nothing. This is a canard, though, because the fundamental nature of blockchain technology allows a potential buyer (or anyone, really) to verify the provenance of an NFT. It's then up to the buyer to verify that the NFT originated in a wallet or account associated directly with the artist.
As a buyer, as always, it's your job to verify that you're not buying a counterfeit. As a seller, as always, the value of the NFT you hold is subject to its verifiable provenance.
A few NFT marketplaces will verify identity but no where near thoroughly enough. Privacy and KYC are going to be the biggest crypto issue for 2022. More and more projects are looking to incorporate identity oracles like Global ID and are looking to provide no more data than is necessary for KYC inquiries using tech like Zero Knowledge proofs (ZKP).
Panther protocol is the most interesting of these projects I've come across, but every utility driven blockchain is making plans to incorporate identity verification in some way.
Typically they get paid the initial listing sum of the auction (at least) and what happens on secondary market is not their concern, similar to classic art pieces.
Royalties can be a thing provided NFTs are traded using a smart contract that pays royalties to the creator but it's not that common since artists are compensated well enough by the first approach and don't need to milk secondary market trades.
